The Royal Treatment

Organised? Yes. Clean and tidy? I believe I am. A Practical Princess? Not quite.

Last year I babysat for a lady who had recently engaged the help of four members of Elika Gibbs organising service, Practical Princess, to un-clutter the chaos that was her £100K-plus wardrobe.

The result was nothing short of breathtaking. Her closet – already larger than my bedroom – had been transformed. There was a wall of stacked shoe boxes with digital images of their designer contents facing out for easy picking, two walls of neatly hung couture, folded cashmere cardigans arranged in colour order and four shelves devoted to her Balenciaga, Chanel and Prada handbags. And this was just her winter wardrobe. Her summer clothes were ‘archived’, plastic wrapped and safely stored in their attic.

It had taken four women a full six days to create this closet of perfection, but only one woman to purchase it all in the first place!

Gibbs began her business after realising a gap in the market for the super wealthy and their wardrobe malfunctions. Having spent years as a stylist at her dress and hire shop Bodie and Gibbs she had become accustomed to transforming these women for their A-list events and was increasingly asked to accompany them shopping to help revamp their look. And so began Practical Princess.

Based on her statistic that most people wear 20% of their wardrobe 80% of the time, Gibbs encourages women to say goodbye to the old and unused in a bid make the most out of your clothes. This bespoke service, complete with consultation, revamp, photographic cataloguing and even post-perfection personal shopping aims to turn a mere wardrobe into a personal boutique – at a cost, of course.*

For those of us not made of moola, you can purchase her helpful storing devices online, including hangers, folding templates, draw liners and dividers and even your own shoe labelling software – may you never again dig in desperation for your favourite (long-lost) Manolos!

As the anal retentive, fashion-afflicted girl I am, I too hope to one day join the ranks of the Practical Princesses before me… For now though I’ll have to arrange and catalogue my closet of H&M and Primark all on my own.

*Prices upon application (+44 (0) 20 7371 0276, www.practicalprincess.com)